Personally I think the farmers are getting it right because grade A makes money but the anti farmers would never weigh that truth. Some articles for folks to see where the truth lies and the lying ends.



Article 1

World Farm Animal Day – October 2
http://www.wfad.org/actioncenter/

Ninety-eight percent of all animal suffering takes place in factory
farms and slaughterhouses. World Farm Animals Day marks the one day
each year when people of conscience are honor-bound to take action.

Popular activities include leafleting, information tables, lectures,
marches, walks, fasts, and memorial services. For a more dramatic
effect, stage a die-in, hold a vigil or protest, or have a cage-in or
video screening in a public place. Don't miss this chance to be part
of an international day of action to raise awareness about the moral,
environmental, and public health hazards of animal agriculture!

You can also help spread the word online by placing a WFAD banner on
your website. Click here for details.

Register Your Event

Register your event today. Even if you haven't finalized your
activities, let us know your interest. You can update your plans as
the details unfold.

How to register:

Online - click here
Phone - call 888-FARM-USA (327-6872)
Benefits of registering:

Publicizes your activities to local activists and media
Inspires other activists with your example
Allows you to download the WFAD Action Guide
Allows you to request an Event Pack, with a banner, colorful posters,
handout materials, stickers, and more.


What You Can Do - A Look at Different Types of Activism

Cage-ins: An excellent way to bring attention to the plight of farmed
animals. They are highly effective in conjunction with videos and can
attract a media attention. Click here for cage-in details.

Die-In: A visually powerful and symbolic form of protest. They have
traditionally been used to protest nuclear proliferation. More
recently, they have been used to protest the war on Iraq. World Farm
Animals Day die-ins take a stand for animals (whose suffering is
invisible and denied). The idea is for a group of activists dressed in
black to lie down motionless for a set amount of time (usually about
20-30 mins). click here for details.

Video Rigs: Playing a video to expose standard farming and slaughter
practices is a sure way to simultaneously grab attention and create
awareness. Click here for instructions on setting up a video rig.

Protests: A protest is a great way to express outrage towards an
establishment's treatment or policies regarding animals. It can also
generate a lot of negative publicity for your target, if
well-thought-out. If you are working on a campaign in your area,
consider incorporating it into World Farm Animals Day by staging a
protest on or around Gandhi's birthday. Making your campaign part of
an international day of action makes it much more news-worthy. When
planning your protest, be sure to read up on local ordinances
regarding the size, location, timing, and noise levels of protests.
Depending on local laws, you may need one or more permits. And don't
forget: stay on public property!

KFC Demo: Kentucky Fried Cruelty demonstrations are a great way to
support both World Farm Animals Day and the Kentucky Fried Cruelty
campaign spearheaded by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of
Animals). Click the link to learn more about the atrocities
perpetuated by KFC, to find the KFC nearest you, and to take action.
Be sure to register your event with both PETA and WFAD.

Vigils & Memorial Services: Vigils and memorial services are somber
events that focus attention on the tragedy of factory farming. They
are a time to remember the losses suffered by each of the more than 50
billion individuals animals murdered by agribusiness each year. These
events can be as elaborate as funeral processions or as
straightforward as candlelight vigils. Props like candles, black
ribbons, somber music, and funeral attire can create a very dramatic
effect. Activists can also conduct a fast to increase the media appeal
of the event, and to bring attention to the millions of people who go
hungry as grains are fed to livestock instead.

Ads and Billboards: A great way to reach thousands of people with
minimal effort. Individuals and organizations that wish to contribute
funds instead of or in addition to their time, can sponsor newspaper
ads, bus cards, or billboards. Call 888-FARM-USA for details.

Banner Drop: A banner drop involves the placement of a large banner in
a public area. It's a quick and easy way spread your message to the
masses and can be done with just a few people (1-3 is ideal). Get
creative in making your own banner, customizing the message according
to the location and target. Before proceeding, be sure to check local
laws, as some jusisdictions consider it to be vandalism.

Feed-ins: Feed-ins demonstrate the benefits of a cruelty-free diet
through delicious vegan food. Offer samples of meat-alternatives at a
busy downtown intersection, feed homeless people, or conduct a
workplace feed-in for your co-workers. Offering food samples works
well in conjunction with leafleting or an info table.

Information Tables: A simple and easy way to get the message out.
Information tables require relatively little planning and allow
activists to engage the public in meaningful, one-on-one dialogues.
Pick a popular location and busy time of day, get a permit (if
necessary), then show up for a few hours with a large table, display
materials and handouts. FARM will provide the materials you need;
simply register online or call 888-FARM-USA to get your free Action
Guide and Event Pack.

Exhibits: Exhibits are basically the unstaffed version of an
information table. The typical duration of an exhibit ranges from one
week to one month. Libraries and student unions are popular locations
for exhibits, which tend to be more visual than information tables.
Display materials, including books, are usually under protective glass
cover, while handouts are available to passersby. FARM will provide
the materials you need; simply register online or call 888-FARM-USA to
get your free Action Guide and Event Pack.

Leafleting: Leafleting is a simple activity, as it requires no
permits, no equipment, and little planning. Make sure to make the most
of your efforts by hitting high-traffic areas at the busiest times.
Lunch hour and quitting time are optimal times. Leaflet any occasion
with your choice of our free colorful postcard-sized handouts.

Card Distribution/Literature Drop-off: If you're short on time, simply
drop our colorful WFAD handouts off at various locations throughout
your community to spread the word. Locations can include animal
shelters, vet offices, libraries, universities, health food stores, or
anywhere else you see fit.

Ads and Billboards: A great way to reach thousands of people with
minimal effort. Individuals and organizations that wish to contribute
funds instead of or in addition to their time, can sponsor newspaper
ads, bus cards, or billboards. Call 888-FARM-USA for details.

Web banners: Help us publicize the World Fam Animals Day message by
posting a WFAD banner on your website. Click here to find out how.

Donations: If you are unable to hold an event of your own this year,
please consider supporting the efforts of other grassroots activists
by making a donation. Sponsor a WFAD billboard! Click here for
details.

Article 2


Feedstuffs.com
Viewpoint: HSUS: Try to understand ... before it's too late
Sally Schuff
(9/16/2008)
http://www.feedstuffs.com/ME2/dirmod.asp...E31F0C59F89587D

HERE is a challenge for the Humane Society of the United States
(HSUS): Try to understand the purpose of animal agriculture before you
are blamed for a major mistake.

Animal agriculture is not about torturing animals in factory farms,
nor poisoning the environment, nor obesity.

Animal agriculture is all about providing high-quality human nutrition
not only to the well-heeled and picky eaters in developed countries
but also to those whose economic reality is defined by the deficit in
high-protein foods for the young, the old and the ill.

Meat, milk, eggs, poultry and fish are high-quality, protein-rich
foods that contain the essential amino acids required for human
development. They hardly qualify as social evils.

When animal agriculture is attacked, as it clearly is by HSUS, there
is a danger that it could be damaged or destroyed -- or discouraged,
at the very least.

Considering global population growth, HSUS might want to think twice
before risking the blame for promoting a future protein shortage.

Last week, Danielle Nierenberg, billed as an animal agriculture and
climate change specialist for HSUS, bluntly restated the group's
agenda.

Her remarks came in Washington, D.C., at a Hudson Institute discussion
of a new peer-reviewed paper showing that the use of bovine growth
hormone reduces the dairy industry's carbon footprint by reducing the
number of animals and inputs needed to produce milk.

Unimpressed, Nierenberg said, "But animal agriculture contributes to a
wide range of other social ills, including harming public health --
the increase in diseases."

She continued, "There are numerous studies showing that Escherichia
coli and avian influenza increase in factory farm conditions."

However, when Hudson Institute director of research on global food
issues Alex Avery challenged her to cite her sources, Nierenberg was
unable to do so.

Nierenberg's attack was revealing. While there was some accuracy in
her allegations that rural communities "are often negatively impacted
... by odor, manure and flies from these operations," she then
launched into the patently ridiculous, saying, "Animal welfare ... is
almost completely ignored in these operations."

She went on to charge large-scale operations as "filthy" and disease ridden.

In a heated exchange with Avery, Nierenberg said, "My perspective is
one that is critical of industrial animal agriculture, mostly the
largest of the large-scale operations. I am not critical of small- and
medium-sized dairy, chicken and pig farmers who have worked very hard
in this country to raise animals."

What Nierenberg missed, and what HSUS always misses, is that the size
of the operation is not the issue. What matters is management.

People manage animals; they manage animal health and well-being,
environmental remediation, public health concerns and community
acceptance. The excellence of an animal operation is governed by how
good the people are -- not how big the operation is.

There are many examples of good management in all sizes of operations,
but if management is equally good, the large operations benefit from
greater efficiencies simply because of lower unit costs.

There are also occasional bad actors in all sizes of operations, and
no one defends them.

It would really be helpful if HSUS could understand this.

Maybe HSUS could lower its voice and understand that animal
agriculture is not an evil industry, nor is it stuck in the status
quo. It is an industry that openly seeks and adopts production
improvements.

Most importantly, it is an industry that produces a product essential
to human nutrition, and frankly, it could use all the well-intentioned
help it could get.

Whatever its motives, HSUS needs to be concerned about what its
current attack agenda will mean to the future of animal agriculture.
If that agenda brings on a global shortage of high-quality,
protein-rich foods, then the blame will fall squarely on HSUS and its
allies.

This article was written by Feedstuffs Washington Bureau staff
reporter Sally Schuff as an editorial.

Feedstuffs
Court dismisses most challenges to HSUS foie gras lawsuit
By ROD SMITH
September 15, 2008 | Issue 38 | Volume 80,
http://www.feedstuffs.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?sid=&nm=&type=Publishing&mod=Publications%3A%3AArticle&mid=AA01E1C62E954234AA0052ECD5818EF4&tier=4&id=4DD291D438CD4BE080A45358FBE07779

A NEW York appeals court has dismissed almost all of a lawsuit brought
by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) against New York
state challenging a $420,000 Empire State Development Corp. grant to
Hudson Valley Foie Gras in southern New York for the farm's expansion
program.

Hudson Valley, which is the largest foie gras producer in the U.S. and
plans to expand from 250,000 ducks to 325,000 to meet demand for its
product, sought the grant to improve manure treatment and ventilation
systems, according to a report by the Animal Agriculture Alliance. The
company has committed $1 million to the project, the alliance noted.

However, HSUS and six individual members of the group petitioned the
state to withdraw the grant (Feedstuffs, Sept. 11, 2006), and when it
refused, they took the matter to the appeals court. The court ruled
that the plaintiffs did not have legal standing to bring the action
except for one plaintiff who lives near the farm who could challenge
the state for not performing proper environmental reviews. Even then,
the court suggested that the expansion at issue did not necessarily
require an extensive environmental study.

Hudson Valley is a frequent target of animal activist groups, and two
other HSUS suits are pending.

One suit charges the farm with more than 1,000 violations of the U.S.
Clean Water Act (Feedstuffs. Jan. 8, 2007), and the second contends
that foie gras is an adulterated and diseased food that should be
removed from the marketplace (Feedstuffs, Aug. 6, 2007).

Foie gras is the fattened liver of ducks and geese that many people
regard as a delicacy. It is produced by force- feeding the birds.

HSUS, based in Washington, D.C., advocates vegetarianism.

I'm sorry, *laughs* I know this is a serious article, but, I was eating a KFC BBQ Chicken Sandwich while I was reading this article. Too funny not to mention!